(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Wednesday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
INTERLEAGUE N.Y. Yankees 6, Philadelphia Phillies 5 Minnesota Twins 8, N.Y. Mets 3 Miami Marlins 6, Tampa Bay Rays 2 St. Louis Cardinals 10, Texas Rangers 1 Houston Astros 5, Pittsburgh Pirates 4 San Francisco Giants 1, Oakland Athletics 0 Colorado Rockies 2, Los Angeles Angels 1
AMERICAN LEAGUE Baltimore Orioles 10, Toronto Blue Jays 4 Kansas City Royals 10, Chicago White Sox 3 Boston Red Sox 3, Seattle Mariners 2
NATIONAL LEAGUE Chicago Cubs 13, Cincinnati Reds 4 Atlanta Braves 6 Milwaukee Brewers 2 Arizona Diamondbacks 5, Washington Nationals 4 San Diego Padres 8, L.A. Dodgers 1
(NEW YORK) — Five-time Olympic swimmer Dara Torres felt nervous about asking her doctor if she could compete three weeks after giving birth.
Her doctor asked her to wait. She could start some light exercise tomorrow, though.
Torres, now the head coach of Boston College’s swimming and diving teams, remembers running into her doctor 10 days later at the gym.
“I don’t know if the endorphins were going, because I was at a gym and I was working out and I was feeling good,” Torres told ABC News. But she asked her doctor, “I have a meet in a week and a half. Can I swim in it?”
Torres did end up swimming in that meet. Her impressive performance there paved the way for her 2008 Olympic comeback only 16 months after giving birth.
The spotlight on elite athletes like Allyson Felix returning to competition after having a baby has contributed to increased resources for parents competing in the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics. However, shortfalls in research and guidance for athletes in the 12-week “postpartum” period following the birth of a child can hinder their return to competition and make it harder to achieve their peak performance.
Sparse advice for athletes post-childbirth
“There’s very little data out there about how postpartum women should progress, that’s supported by science. It’s mostly expert opinion,” said Dr. Ellen Casey, a sports medicine physician at the Hospital for Special Surgery.
This opinion is to listen to your body. “Your body’s going to tell you when you’ve pushed its limits,” said Dr. Melissa Simon, an OB-GYN at Northwestern Medicine.
“Just like if you’re trying to go from the couch to running a 5K, there’s a ramp up,” Simon said. “And for an athlete, that ramp up period obviously changes depending on the particular sport or event that they’re participating in.”
Olympian Ashley Twichell got back in the pool seven weeks after delivery. “I vividly remember my first day getting back in the water,” she told ABC News. Her time was slower than she hoped for. “My training times have never really gotten back to what they were pre-pregnancy,” but her competition times are catching up.
She remembers telling herself “this might be a little bit longer of a journey and maybe a little bit harder of a journey than I expected.”
Twichell is part of USA Swimming’s Board of Directors as the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee Athletes’ Advisory Council representative.
Torres, on the other hand, said that her joints were more flexible after giving birth, and her swim times reflected this. “My body changed, but it was for the better,” she said.
At the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, Torres shaved time off the 50-meter freestyle performance at the 2000 Games in Sydney.
“I was probably in the best shape of my life after I had my daughter,” said Torres.
But the scientific jury is out on how pregnancy and childbirth affect performance. According to a review of the existing studies regarding postpartum performance in athletes, most were considered low quality.
One of the few studies to examine this question looked at the 150 best female marathoners worldwide. Of the 37 who had given birth, 70% posted their best times after giving birth.
More research is needed to understand how postpartum athletes should return to competitive sports, and “we have a long ways to go,” said Pamela Geisel. Geisel, an exercise physiologist, is the director of performance and wellness services at HSS.
Regaining core strength is key
The postpartum bounceback can be hard for athletes — and anyone for that matter — for a multitude of reasons: increased metabolic demands with breastfeeding, sleep deprivation and postpartum blues or depression.
Healing the pelvic floor and abdominal wall after delivery can be a particular problem for a lot of new moms.
Torres said “my core was so mushy,” after giving birth. This “mushiness” can be due to a condition called rectus diastasis, where the connective tissue between the abs muscles is separated or torn.
“Some statistics say that 100% of pregnant women will have some degree of separation,” in this connective tissue for the baby to grow, said Casey.
For 30% to 60% of postpartum women, the tissue doesn’t go back to how it was before pregnancy, Casey continued. However, “just because it’s common does not make it normal,” she emphasized.
Pelvic floor and core strengthening exercises can reduce pain and other complications from rectus diastasis, she said. Other experts say Kegels and squats can help strengthen the pelvic floor, while planks and crunches help the core.
“Strengthening the core was pretty key for me,” Torres agreed.
New taskforce advocates for more resources
The USPOC launched the Women’s Health Taskforce in 2022, which has focused on creating plans to support the women of Team USA. Casey is a part of this 16 person panel that has generated guidelines for postpartum return.
Advocacy for parent athletes resulted in the first ever Olympic village nursery. The nursery offers a childcare center, free diapers and wipes, and private spaces for breastfeeding.
“This is probably the most parent friendly Olympics ever,” said Simon.
However, Geisel said there is still much work to be done.
“We have a group of athletes that had to choose between becoming mothers or winning gold medals,” in the past, Geisel said. “I’m excited about the future and that women no longer will have to choose one or the other.”
Sejal Parekh, M.D., is a practicing pediatrician and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.
Nada Hafez of Team Egypt celebrates her victory against Elizabeth Tartakovsky of Team United States in the Fencing Women’s Sabre Individual Table of 32 on day three of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Grand Palais on July 29, 2024 in Paris. (Carl Recine/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — An Egyptian Olympian has revealed she competed at the 2024 Olympics in Paris while seven months pregnant.
Nada Hafez, competing in her third Olympics, shared the news on Instagram Monday, captioning two photos of herself competing with the words, “7 MONTHS PREGNANT OLYMPIAN!”
“What appears to you as two players on the podium, they were actually three! It was me, my competitor, & my yet-to-come to our world, little baby!,” Hafez wrote, later adding, “This specific Olympics was different; Three times *Olympian* but this time carrying a little Olympian one!”
Hafez reached the round of 16 by defeating American Elizabeth Tartakovsky in women’s saber Monday, before falling to Jeon Hayoung of South Korea.
Hafez shared her pregnancy news publicly following her loss, writing in her Instagram post, “My baby & I had our fair share of challenges, be it both physical & emotional.”
“The rollercoaster of pregnancy is tough on its own, but having to fight to keep the balance of life & sports was nothing short of strenuous, however worth it,” she continued. “I’m writing this post to say that pride fills my being for securing my place in the round of 16!”
Hafez also thanked her husband, whom she wed in 2023, and her family for sharing their “trust” with her.
In addition to the Paris Olympics, Hafez also competed in the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo and 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
The Paris Olympics is perhaps the most family friendly Olympics in history thanks to a nursery that gives athlete parents a space to spend time with their children during the Games.
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Tuesday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
INTERLEAGUE N.Y. Yankees 7, Philadelphia Phillies 6 N.Y. Mets 2, Minnesota Twins 0 Tampa Bay Rays 9, Miami Marlins 3 St. Louis Cardinals 8, Texas Rangers 1 Pittsburgh Pirates 6, Houston Astros 2 Oakland Athletics 5, San Francisco Giants 2 Colorado Rockies 7, Los Angeles Angels 10
AMERICAN LEAGUE Baltimore Orioles 6, Toronto Blue Jays 2 Cleveland Guardians 5, Detroit Tigers 0 Seattle Mariners 10, Boston Red Sox 6 Kansas City Royals 4, Chicago White Sox 3
NATIONAL LEAGUE Cincinnati Reds 6, Chicago Cubs 3 Atlanta Braves 5 Milwaukee Brewers 1 L.A. Dodgers 5, San Diego Padres 6 Washington Nationals 0, Arizona Diamondbacks 17
(PARIS) — Team USA stars Simone Biles, Sunisa Lee, Jordan Chiles and Jade Carey carried the U.S. to gold in the team event in Paris on Tuesday, returning to the top of the podium after Biles dropped out of the event in Tokyo.
Team USA finished with a score of 171.296, nearly six points more than second place.
in winning gold, Biles also became the most-decorated American gymnast in history with eight medals. She broke a tie with the great Shannon Miller for most overall medals.
Italy earned the silver medal with 165.494 points and Brazil took home bronze with 164.497.
The U.S. women’s gymnastics team adds a fourth gold medal to its collection after previously landing in the top spot on the podium in 2016 at the Rio Games. The team has medaled at every Olympics since 1992 in Barcelona.
Italy landed on the podium for the first time since 1928, while Brazil — led by star Rebeca Andrade — claimed its first medal in the women’s team event.
US women’s gymnastics win gold medal in team finals
Rotation 1: Vault
The Americans started with vault, putting up 44.100 in a strong performance to give them the lead over China, which started with the uneven bars, after the first rotation. Chiles, Carey and Biles performed on vault with Biles posting a team-high score of 14.900.
Carey was narrowly behind Biles with a 14.800 and Chiles posted a 14.400.
Rotation 2: Uneven Bars
Chiles led off the uneven bars for Team USA with a near stuck landing, posting a score of 14.366, which Biles followed up with a 14.400. In Lee’s first rotation of the day, the Tokyo bronze medalist in this event, subsequently scored 14.566 after her feet tapped the ground, which accounted for a five-tenth deduction.
The U.S. led Italy by 3.102 at the end of the second rotation heading into balance beam.
Rotation 3: Balance Beam
Chiles had a difficult start for the U.S. on the beam with a fall on her entry to the first skill, but recovered to post a score of 12.733.
Lee started strong with a straddle mount and her solid routine with a gainer full dismount earned a 14.600 for the U.S.
Biles, a two-time Olympic balance beam bronze medalist, had a flawless flight series in her routine and posted a 14.366.
Through the third rotation, Team USA led Great Britain by 4.967 with a total score of 129.131.
Rotation 4: Floor Exercise
Suni Lee kicked off Team USA’s first of three floor routines set to music from Lindsey Stirling, the same artist she competed to in Tokyo, and notched a 13.533.
Chiles impressed with a “fire” routine, as Lee told her teammate, upon finishing to an uproar of cheers throughout the arena that resulted in 13.966.
Biles capped off the final rotation and notched the last score of 14.666.
US women’s gymnastics team final in Paris Olympics
This marks the first team in Olympics history for men’s or women’s to field two Olympic all-around gold medalists with veterans Biles, who won in 2016, and Lee, who won in Tokyo three years ago.
The team took home the silver medal in the team finals in the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Games and will look to best their result in hopes of gold in Paris.
While Hezly Rivera, just 16 years old, is also part of the U.S. team, she did not compete in any of the four apparatuses in the team event. Rivera was prepped and ready to go, but is just as much a part of the team and will get a gold medal for the team’s win.
Scoring on each apparatus is broken up by execution and difficulty to give final combined scores.
The U.S. women have medaled at every team event in the Olympics since 1992.
A boat floats down the Seine River at sunrise after the Men’s triathlon race was postponed due to Seine pollution and high E.coli levels during the 2024 Summer Olympics, at the Pont Alexandre III bridge in Paris, France, on Tuesday, July 30, 2024. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — The men’s triathlon at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris has been postponed after tests carried out in the Seine “revealed water quality levels that did not provide sufficient guarantees to allow the event to be held,” officials said.
Originally scheduled to take place at 8 a.m. local time on Tuesday, the event has now been postponed and is scheduled to take place on Wednesday at 10:45 a.m. following the completion of the Women’s Triathlon competition, subject to forthcoming water tests complying with the established World Triathlon thresholds for swimming.
“Unfortunately, meteorological events beyond our control, such as the rain which fell over Paris on 26 and 27 July, can alter water quality and compel us to reschedule the event for health reasons,” Olympic officials said in a statement early Tuesday morning. “Despite the improvement of water quality levels over the last hours, the readings at some points of the swim course are still above the acceptable limits.”
Olympic organizers said that updated information regarding tickets and broadcast of the events on Wednesday will be shared in the next hours.
Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, swam in the Seine on July 17 in a showcase intended to show how clean the river was for the outdoor swimming events at the Olympics, even after the Seine’s water quality remained questionable and had repeatedly failed tests in advance of the 33rd Olympiad.
“On the eve of the Games, when the Seine will play a key role, this event represents the demonstration of the efforts made by the city and the state to improve the quality of the Seine’s waters and the ecological state of the river,” Hidalgo’s office said in a statement on before her swim.
Even that swim had been postponed from when it was originally scheduled to take place in June but river samples at the time were deemed to be too unhealthy for her to swim in.
During heavy rains, sewage can overflow into the river. For example, on June 18, after several days of rain, E. coli levels in the Seine River jumped to roughly 10,000 Colony Forming Units per milliliter, more than 10 times the safety limit.
According to findings published by Paris City Hall earlier this month, the last week of June saw four days when the water was clean enough to swim in, according to European standards, but no days when it was clean enough to swim in according to U.S. standards.
Paris Olympics officials initially insisted there would be “no plan B,” but organizers revealed their contingency plans on July 5, saying that open-water swimming might take place in the Marne River instead. In addition, officials said they could delay the triathlon event or, in the worst-case scenario, eliminate the swimming portion of the competition altogether.
Team USA poses with their bronze medal during the podium ceremony for the artistic gymnastics men’s team final during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Bercy Arena in Paris, on July 29, 2024. (Paul Ellis/AFP via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The U.S. men’s gymnastics team took a thrilling bronze in the team event in Paris on Monday, earning the first team medal for the American men since the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
With razor sharp performances in all six rotations — rings, vault, parallel bars, horizontal bar, floor exercise and pommel horse — Brody Malone, Paul Juda, Asher Hong, Frederick Richard and Stephen Nedoroscik earned a spot on the podium at Bercy Arena behind gold medal winner Japan and silver medalist China.
Richard, Malone and Hong started the team off strong with 42.732 points for their rings performance.
Juda and Malone impressed in the second rotation with nearly perfect back-to-back vault routines, earning 14.666 and 14.533 respectively, which was rounded out by Hong’s 14.833 for a combined total of 44.032.
Malone, Richard and Hong posted 43.399 points total on parallel bars, the team’s third rotation.
Malone scored 14.166 in his signature event, the high bar, including a beautiful dismount with two twists, two flips laid out and stuck landing.
Team USA fell just short of Japan in the floor exercise. Juda, Hong and Richard’s performances earned 42.799 combined points.
In the final rotation, Team USA seemingly saved the best for last with the 25-year-old pommel horse “specialist” Nedoroscik, who scored 14.866 with a stuck landing in his only rotation for the team event during the 2024 Paris Games.
His impressive finish combined with Brody and Juda’s routines in that rotation earned 42.466 total, which put Team USA in the bronze medal spot.
Meet the men behind USA’s first team men’s gymnastics medal in 16 years
Brody Malone
The 24-year-old Stanford University graduate made his Olympics debut at the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Games. His next appearance will be Wednesday for the men’s all-around final.
Frederick Richard
The 20-year-old first-time Olympian received advice to improve his run for vault from Team USA track and field star Noah Lyles, who posted about their shared conversation on Instagram. Richard was the 2023 world championships all-around bronze medallist.
Paul Juda
The 23-year-old son of two Polish immigrants is making his Olympic debut in Paris alongside University of Michigan teammate Richard, after previously failing to qualify for Tokyo 2020. Juda helped Team USA earn a bronze medal at the 2023 world championships in Antwerp, Belgium.
Asher Hong
The 20-year-old from Texas is exactly one month younger than Richard and making his Olympics debut in Paris with a bronze medal from the 2023 world championships under his belt.
Stephen Nedoroscik
The bespectacled 25-year-old from Massachusetts only competes in one discipline — the pommel horse. In 2021, the former Penn State Nittany Lion became the first gymnast from the USA to win a gold medal on pommel horse at the world championships.
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Monday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
INTERLEAGUE N.Y. Yankees 14, Philadelphia Phillies 4 N.Y. Mets 15, Minnesota Twins 2 Texas Rangers 6, St. Louis Cardinals 3 Pittsburgh Pirates 5, Houston Astros 3
AMERICAN LEAGUE Baltimore Orioles 11, Toronto Blue Jays 5 (GM 1 Doubleheader) Cleveland Guardians 8, Detroit Tigers 4 Toronto Blue Jays 8, Baltimore Orioles 4 (GM 2 Doubleheader) Boston Red Sox 14, Seattle Mariners 7 Kansas City Royals 8, Chicago White Sox 5
NATIONAL LEAGUE Cincinnati Reds 7, Chicago Cubs 1 Milwaukee Brewers 8, Atlanta Braves 3 Washington Nationals 9, Arizona Diamondbacks 9
(LONDON) — An Olympic athlete has had his finger amputated after he suffered an injury just so he can play in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Just two weeks ago, Matthew Dawson, a 30-year-old hockey player from Australia, suffered a badly broken finger on his right-hand during a team training session in Perth, Australia, and, after consulting with doctors, he found out the injury would take months to recover from and that he would miss out on the opportunity to play in his third Olympic Games.
But instead of opting for a long recovery, Dawson made a decision that would shock his teammates and has already made headlines around the world. He decided to amputate his finger so that he could compete in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
“There was a bit of shock within the team,” said Dawson’s teammate, Aran Zalewski, in an interview in Paris in the run up to the opening ceremony on Friday evening. “We didn’t really know what to think. And then we heard that he went to the hospital and chopped his finger off, which was pretty interesting because I know people would give an arm and a leg and even a little bit of finger to be here sometimes.”
“When you’ve spent a lifetime of choice and sacrifice to come and compete at the highest level, I think for him it was an easy decision,” Zalewski continued. “We’ve got his back. We’re fully supportive of his decision. We played a game [on Monday] and he seems absolutely fine. It’s great to see that his finger is going to be all right and he’ll be able to play with us throughout the tournament.”
Dawson, who underwent surgery on his right hip, a month after the Commonwealth Games in 2018, has had a long list of injuries during his career, including suffering a fractured eye socket in Feb. 2018 in a training accident, causing him to miss the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Malaysia the following month.
Dawson took up hockey when he was 8-years-old after his sister gave up netball and his parents signed her up for the local hockey team.
“As little brothers tend to do, I tagged along and watched my sister play hockey over the next couple of years,” Dawson explained in an interview in Nov. 2018.
Dawson is now set to be a three-time Olympian after competing in 2016 and 2020, where he won a silver medal with his squad after losing to Belgium on penalties. He is also a two-time Commonwealth Games gold medalist in 2018 and 2022 and has two Hockey World Cup appearances under his belt where he came in third with his team in 2018 and fourth in 2023.
(PARIS) — From Bacon (both Sarah, a diver, and Phoebe, a swimmer) to Coffey (both Olivia, a rower, and Sam, a soccer player), Team USA will be sending a veritable smorgasbord of talent to Paris for the 2024 Olympics.
You probably know the big names — such as gymnast Simone Biles and swimmer Katie Ledecky — but there are 592 U.S. Olympians competing in Paris.
The returning members of Team USA have already won 110 gold medals before arriving in Paris, led by swimmers Ledecky (seven) and Caeleb Dressel (seven) and women’s basketball player Diana Taurasi (five). Ledecky also has the most total medals (10) while Biles has seven total medals, including four gold. No one else on the team has more than four gold.
Not sure who else to pay attention to in Paris? We’ve compiled a list of the 10 Americans to know when the Summer Games kick off this weekend.
Chase Budinger, beach volleyball
If you think you remember a basketball player named Chase Budinger, who played eight seasons in the NBA and was co-MVP of the McDonald’s All-American Game in 2006 alongside Kevin Durant, you’re probably confused why “beach volleyball” is next to his name above. But no, that’s not a typo.
Budinger, the California Basketball Player of the Year in his senior season in high school, hung up his basketball shoes in 2017 and hit the beach for his second-best sport — volleyball. Then again, maybe it’s his best sport?
The 36-year-old was actually a huge volleyball recruit in high school, too. But he passed up playing the indoor game for a college basketball career at Arizona. Now, he and partner Miles Evans will be heading to Paris to play beach volleyball as part of Team USA.
Evans and Budinger only started playing together last year, but they are the U.S.’s No. 2 team behind Andy Benesh and Miles Partain. Partain, just 22 years old, and Benesh are a great story in their own right and probably a better bet to win gold from the U.S. teams. They’re ranked No. 9 in the world.
But Budinger and Evans are ranked No. 13 and have two tournament wins in less than 20 matches as partners.
Katie Moon, pole vault
There was definitely a pun to be made with Moon’s last name, but for now we’ll just focus on her out-of-this-world talent.
Moon, then known by her maiden name, Nageotte, won gold in pole vault in Tokyo and followed that up with world titles in 2022 and 2023. She also took home top honors on the Diamond League circuit (a regular season, so to speak) last year.
Her toughest competition will likely be Great Britain’s Molly Caudery, who has also grabbed headlines for her modeling work, and Australia’s Nina Kennedy, who won at the last Diamond League event before the Olympics. Caudery won the indoor world championships in March and has the world best this year (4.92 meters).
Moon can be a streaky jumper. She finished eighth (last place) at last week’s London Diamond League event and was upset by unheralded (and unsponsored) Bridget Williams in the U.S. Olympic trials.
But Moon’s personal best of 4.95 meters, set ahead of the Tokyo Games, is better than any of her competitors and back-to-back gold is easily within her reach.
Katie Grimes, swimming
Theoretically, swimming is swimming, no matter where you are doing it. But it’s unusual for a talented swimmer in the pool to also compete in open-water swimming. No American woman had ever done both until this year.
Grimes will be doing the double in Paris, swimming in the 1,500 meters and the 400-meter individual medley indoors as well as the 10-kilometer open-water event — still scheduled to be held in the Seine River as long as no one’s skin melts off during training.
Grimes is actually a bit of a prodigy. She was Team USA’s youngest member in Tokyo at just 15 years old. At 18, she’s still one of the youngest Americans at the Games (gymnast Hezly Rivera, 16, is the youngest).
She had already qualified for Paris in the open-water event before showing up at the indoor swim trials in Indianapolis last month by taking bronze in the 10-kilometer outdoor event in July 2023. She was actually the first American to make the U.S. team in any sport.
No woman has ever won a medal in their career in both the pool and open-water competition (though it has happened on the men’s side). Grimes has a real chance to do both in the same Olympics.
Salif Mane, triple jump
No slight to Fairleigh Dickinson University, but the New Jersey school isn’t exactly known as a track and field powerhouse. In fact, Mane was the only competitor from FDU at the NCAA track and field championships in Eugene, Oregon, last month as he wrapped up his senior season.
That didn’t stop the triple jumper from winning Fairleigh Dickinson’s first individual national title in any sport and then upsetting everyone at the U.S. Olympic trials.
Mane jumped a personal best 17.52 meters at the U.S. Olympic trials just weeks after setting a previous personal best (17.14 meters) at the NCAA championships.
Now the Bronx native has a chance to continue a legacy in triple jump for the U.S., which has won five of the last 10 gold medals in the event.
Tara Davis-Woodhall, long jump
Mane was a jumper who wasn’t on many people’s radar not long ago, but Davis-Woodhall has been a star jumper with gold medal potential for awhile. She won gold in junior world championships and even broke future Olympian Marion Jones’ California high school state record that had stood since 1993 (well before she was born).
She’s hardly been a disappointment on the senior level, but Davis-Woodhall is finally realizing her full potential. No doubt the most exuberant and outgoing member of Team USA — she’s never not bouncing around with a megawatt smile — she is currently ranked No. 1 in the world in long jump.
Davis-Woodhall, who is married to three-time Paralympic medalist Hunter Woodhall, finished second in the U.S. Olympic trials in 2021 and qualified for the Olympics as well. But the then-22-year-old finished a disappointing sixth at the Tokyo Games.
The weight of expectations appeared to lie heavily on her shoulders at this year’s trials. She scratched on both her first two jumps in the finals, but qualified to continue on with her third and final jump. but she qualified for the Paris Games on her last jump of the competition.
Davis has had the best season of her career, finishing first in every competition she’s competed in, including a win in the indoor world championships in March. She hasn’t competed in any Diamond League events, but has the second-best jump (7.18 meters) in the world this year. Germany’s Malaika Mihambo, the gold medalist in Tokyo and the owner of the longest jump in the world this year (7.22 meters), will be Davis-Woodhall’s stiffest competition.
Fiona O’Keeffe, marathon
There’s beginner’s luck and then there’s just beginner’s talent. O’Keeffe, who won at the U.S. Olympic trials in the first professional marathon of her life, hopes it’s the latter.
The 26-year-old literally put her blood, sweat and tears into her first marathon in Orlando back in February. She crossed the finish line in 2 hours, 22 minutes and 10 seconds — a trials record — with her bib covered in blood, which she ascribed to a “little chafing situation.”
O’Keeffe was an All-American at Stanford University as a 5,000-meter and 10,000-meter runner before taking her talent to the road.
Medalling in Paris is unlikely given the depth of the Ethiopian and Kenyan teams, but she has huge potential in a discipline that is traditionally dominated by veteran runners.
Jimmer Fredette, 3×3 basketball
“College player” is a derisive term that has plagued college basketball and football players for decades. From Tim Tebow to Adam Morrison to Charlie Ward (in both sports), the names are well-known by sports fans.
Fredette, who was a star at Brigham Young University, was given the label well before he even left college. He still developed a legion of fans for his reputation as a gunner and ultimate competitor (think Caitlin Clark before Caitlin Clark). He led the nation in scoring as a senior in 2010-11, earning Associated Press player of the year honors, and setting just about every scoring record in BYU history.
He was drafted 10th overall by the Sacramento Kings in 2011, but bounced around to the Chicago Bulls, New Orleans Pelicans, New York Knicks and Phoenix Suns in an unremarkable NBA career. He was certainly never close to making the men’s Olympic basketball team.
And yet, at 35 years old, more than five years removed from his last game in the NBA, he’s shooting for gold in Paris as a member of the U.S. 3×3 basketball team — a half-court, outdoor version of the game that debuted in Tokyo. (The U.S. men’s team didn’t even qualify for the Tokyo Games, so this is technically the United States’ debut in the sport.)
Jimmermania has been revived again.
Kennedy Blades, wrestling
Blades already has the coolest name on the U.S. team, but now she’s looking for some hardware in Paris.
The 20-year-old from Chicago, who is already posing for photos in Paris with Snoop Dogg and getting praise from MMA legend Jon Jones, is a rising star in wrestling — and maybe combat sports in general (can it be long before the UFC comes calling?).
Blades barely missed the Tokyo Games, losing to Tamyra Mensah-Stock in the final match in the 76 kg weight class, at just 17. Mensah-Stock went on to win gold in 2021 and Blades’ profile in the sport skyrocketed. She was used to defying expectations though, becoming the first girl to win a state title against boys in the annual Illinois Kids Wrestling Federation tournament at just 12 years old.
Blades defeated Adeline Gray, a six-time world champion who took the silver medal in Tokyo, to qualify for Paris.
Her timeline for greatness has moved up.
Emma Hunt, climbing
It will take the women’s Olympic gold medalist about 10.5 seconds to run the 100-meter dash. Hunt wonders why they waste so much time.
The 21-year-old — who was ranked No. 1 in the world at just 18 — owns the American speed climbing record, climbing the 15-meter-high wall in 6.55 seconds. She’ll be looking to spend as short a time competing in Paris as possible as speed climbing is contested as a standalone sport for the first time (In Tokyo, bouldering, lead and speed were combined in one event).
Hunt set the U.S. record in Salt Lake City in May when she won the World Cup final against Aleksandra Kalucka of Poland. Kalucka’s countrywoman, Aleksandra Miroslaw, holds the current world record — which has fallen repeatedly in recent years — at 6.25 seconds.
Both Polish climbers will be among the top competition for Hunt in Paris, as will be Indonesian star Desak Made Rita Kusuma Dewi, who edged out Hunt for the world title in 2023 (Miroslaw took bronze, while Kalucka took fourth).
Victor Montalvo, breaking
We’re not here to legislate whether breakdancing — officially known as breaking — should be in the Olympics. Besides, the United States has the best competitor in the world, so just wait for another gold medal.
Montalvo, 30, is the defending world champion in breaking. Known as B-Boy Victor, he has carried on a back-and-forth rivalry with Canadian Phil Wizard in each of the last three world championships. Victor won in 2021 and 2023, while the Canadian won in 2022.
The sport, which developed from the 1980s dance craze, takes place in head-to-head “battles” over multiple rounds. Each dancer is graded in five categories: technique, vocabulary, originality, musicality and execution. The scoring is done by the judges in real time with winners advancing through a bracket.
